Hovorun S. The Theoretical Foundations of Orthodox Ecclesiology in Its Historical Development

For the first time in the Ukrainian theology and religious studies, the research offers a theological analysis of the theoretical foundations for Orthodox ecclesiology in its historical development. The study constructs Meta-ecclesiology as an academic program and methodology, which puts together traditional and postmodern theories about the church. Meta-ecclesiology is presented here as a theology that uses phenomenology and analytical philosophy to elaborate on the concepts of the church, religious communities, and church structures. The thesis begins with the self-interpretations of the church in the apostolic era, and continues with the ideas and practices of symphony and hierarchy in the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It focuses on the strategies of church emancipation in the Modern era. This includes the influence of the Enlightenment and German idealistic philosophy on what can be called “Romantic ecclesiology,” which puts emphasis on congregations, the reception of faith by people, and the relations of love as constituting the church’s reality. The research explores news ways of emancipation for the church in the twentieth century. Among the factors that exercised significant impact on the Orthodox ecclesiology became the dialogue with the Protestant and Catholic theologies, ecumenism, and personalism. The thesis critically approaches the Eucharistic ecclesiology and personalism. It also evaluates the influence of postmodern ecclesiology on the Orthodox theological thought. The study highlights the historical transformations of the church structures. It is based on the assumption that the unchangeable nature of the church should be distinguished from its changing historical structures. These structures include church hierarchy, the so-called “canonical territory,” autocephaly, primacy, the ranks of church ministry etc. They 8 are presented as scaffolding surrounding the church buildings, which helps construction, but cannot be an intrinsic part of edifices. The analysis of the historical structures of the church that the study offers, demonstrates need for both construction and deconstruction of some church’s supracommunal structures, especially when they come to conflict with the church’s nature. The aim of the study is a critical analysis of the theoretical foundations of Orthodox ecclesiology in their historical development. The objective of the study is Orthodox ecclesiology in its dialogue with the Catholic, Protestant, and secular theories of religious sociality. The subject of the study is the theoretical foundations of Orthodox ecclesiology in its historical development. The scientific novelty of the obtained results from the research is that for the first time it accomplished a holistic analysis of the theoretical foundations of Orthodox ecclesiology in its historical development, and articulated the Orthodox Meta-ecclesiology as a theological discipline. The thesis has articulated a number of points, which have been comprehended from new perspectives and suggested for defense.